Giving up the pleasures of a good cup of steaming hot coffee altogether may not be necessary but cutting down on your coffee consumption should be a real consideration. The effects of acidic foods on digestion can greatly compromise overall health. The fact is that coffee contains a high concentration of acid.

Moderation and Vigilance Will Improve Your Digestive Health

Actually, coffee and tea acids can do damage to the pH balance of your body and are classified as acidic drinks. Foods and drinks that have high acidic content are hard for your body to digest properly. Because the acid content causes problems with digestion, it is best to drink coffee by itself and not along with any kind of foods. This will help your body to properly digest the coffee you do drink.

The main problem with ingesting drinks and foods that have a high acidic content is that when your body cannot properly digest your drinks and foods, then absorbing the nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the foods you eat or even the supplements you take is compromised.

You can eat healthy foods with good fiber content and plenty of necessary nutrients all day long but if your body cannot break them down so they are absorbed into your system they will do you no good. In fact, foods that are not properly digested have to go somewhere and the body will most likely store the unprocessed foods as fat. Even worse, if the body cannot absorb the nutrients necessary for proper function it will steal what it needs from vital organs and the bones. This is what causes a situation where the body is susceptible to disease.

Acidic Foods to Avoid for Digestive Health

The list of acidic foods is extensive and can be classified in three categories; slightly acidic, acidic, and highly acidic. Obviously the most important group of foods you need to avoid is the ones that are full of acid. The following is a complete list of these foods:

Very Acidic Foods to Avoid

Artificial sweeteners

Aspartame

Bagels

Baked goods

Biscuits

Bread, white

Cakes

Candy

Brownies

Chips

Chocolate

Cookies

Corn chips

Couscous

Crackers, white-saltines

Custard

Donuts

Equal/aspartame

Flour-white, soy, white rice

Gravy

Hazelnuts

Ice cream

Macadamia nuts

Matzoh

Noodles, egg

Pasta, white flour

Pie

Potato chips

Processed foods

Pudding

Saccharin

Salt, idolized table

Splenda

Tortillas, white (flour)

Cranberries

Cranberry sauce

Fruit juice - sweetened

High fructose corn syrup

Cheese, hard

Corn syrup

Cottonseed oil

Macaroni and Cheese

Bacon

Beef

Beer

Bologna

Carp

Cold cuts

Corned beef

Crab

Deli meats

Ham

Hot dogs/frankfurter, coneys

Lobster

Lunch meat

Pastrami

Pork

Salami

Sausage

Shrimp

Swordfish

Coffee-espresso

Liquor

Milk, homogenized

Soda

Eliminating these foods is not necessary but you need to be aware of the foods that contain high quantities of acid. Limiting the consumption of the highest rated acidic drinks and foods and being aware of the effects of acidic foods on digestion should help to improve your overall health. The body needs to have a pH neutral range in order to function properly. Constant consumption of high acidic drinks like coffee will in time damage your health. An occasional cup of coffee now and then should be no problem but drinking a pot of coffee every day is just a really bad idea.